Traction Control

[RobinS]

Mountaingoat - no probs with having 215's all round. The trick is to have to same rolling diameter front & back - which you do. I've had this confirmed by Bellhill Garage & many 4WD Bongo owners have 215's all round too.

But what this does mean is that "Full time 4wd" actually means 4wd only when you need it. I did a lot of research on this last when looking at using snow chains, and when using the same rolling diameter all round it is rear wheel drive, except when losing grip, when the front and rear wheel speeds would differ, when drive goes to the front. It is not a good "off-road" system, nor is it a performance/handling system, but it does work very well on the Bongo for getting on and off muddy fields, and getting up snowy hills when 2wd vehicles fail.

[smartmonkey]

I think the Bongo is a full time 4 wheel drive system and about as simple as it gets. The bongo has both axles driven all the time regardless of grip/slip conditions. A couple of LSD's would make it better but the potential to drive all 4 wheels is enough in most situations. The real limiting factor is the tyres, as always. Grip sensing it definitely isn't.

[Rhod]

RobinS wrote

when using the same rolling diameter all round it is rear wheel drive, except when losing grip, when the front and rear wheel speeds would differ, when drive goes to the front

This is what my (admittedly often wrong!) logic suggested to me. If the viscous coupling needs a difference in the relative speeds of the front & rear propshafts in order for it to "lock", then I'd have thought that effectively only the rear wheels are driven unless they slip - when drive is added to the front.

However Smartmonkey says

The bongo has both axles driven all the time regardless of grip/slip conditions

Is my logic as far out as usual?
Rhod